Paul Carl Tomasini, 64, a Santee handyman acquainted with Shojai, was found at her home with a stab wound and was arrested hours later on suspicion of murder, sheriff’s officials said.

Investigators are trying to determine whether there was a romantic relationship between the two, as some neighbors had said, sheriff’s Capt. Duncan Fraser said Wednesday.

Shojai was praised on a San Diego State website as a dedicated professional and a gentle, fun-loving person.

“She was an amazing advocate for diversity and inclusion,” Aaron Bruce, SDSU’s chief diversity officer, said on the site. “Every day, Mary worked to insure that the rights of all students were respected and supported.”

SDSU officials said Shojai secured and administered multimillion-dollar grants for disability services. She also was described as an accomplished cellist and organist who was not above playing Bach on kazoo at a recent holiday party.

A friend who was concerned for Shojai’s welfare went to her Strathmore Drive house on Sunday and saw Tomasini there, acting suspiciously, Fraser said. He said the friend didn’t get out of her car, and called 911 about 9:45 p.m.

About the same time, Fraser said, Tomasini also called the Sheriff’s Department and reported that a woman in the house was either dead or severely wounded.

Deputies found Shojai’s body and an “obvious crime scene” with evidence of a struggle, Fraser said.

He said Tomasini had stab wounds that were not life-threatening and was taken by paramedics to a hospital with a deputy as a guard. Tomasini was placed under arrest early Monday morning.

Tomasini was a handyman who had done jobs for several Strathmore Drive residents, Fraser said. He said neighbors were divided on the nature of the relationship between Tomasini and Shojai.

“Some seem to know they were in a relationship, and others say they weren’t,” Fraser said. “He was seen at her house quite a bit in the last few years.”

He said none of the neighbors seemed to have heard anything unusual from Shojai’s house before her body was found. He declined to say why her friend became concerned about her. University officials said Shojai is survived by a son and daughter, as well as her father, a brother and sister.